Additional Notes

From The Publisher*

One of the truly great writers of the century reaches beyond the very top of his game in this uncannily timely knockout of a novel. In quality and compelling scope, this is Rushdie's The Godfather meets The Great Gatsby--an unparalleled modern-day American thriller, with wonderful, moving characters and a grippingly entertaining story straight out of today's headlines, set against the panorama of American culture and politics from the inauguration of Obama to post-election Trump.

When powerful real-estate tycoon Nero Golden immigrates to the States under mysterious circumstances, he and his three adult children assume new identities, reinventing themselves as emperors living in a lavish house in downtown Manhattan. Arriving shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama, he and his sons, each extraordinary in his own right, quickly establish themselves at the apex of New York society, even as Nero Golden continues to raise huge buildings carrying his name in gold letters. The story of the powerful Golden family is told from the point of view of their Manhattanite neighbour and confidant, René, an aspiring filmmaker who finds in the Goldens the perfect subject. René chronicles the undoing of the house of Golden: the high life of money, of art and fashion, a sibling quarrel, an unexpected metamorphosis, the arrival of a beautiful former model, betrayal and murder, and far away, in their abandoned homeland, some decent intelligence work that could ruin Nero Golden forever. Invoking literature, pop culture and the cinema, Rushdie spins the story of the American zeitgeist over the last eight years, hitting every beat: the rise of the birther movement, the Tea Party, and identity politics; Gamergate; the backlash against political correctness; the ascendancy of Superman and Batwoman and the superhero movie; and, of course, the insurgence of a ruthlessly ambitious, narcissistic villain with painted skin and coloured hair.

Review Quote*

PRAISE FOR SALMAN RUSHDIE:

"In the selection of Salman Rushdie for the Chicago Tribune Literary Award, we honor one of the world's most prominent writers, and one who has devoted his life to a principle we hold dear: freedom of speech. A prophetic writer, Rushdie has transcended boundaries and distinguished himself internationally with work that has both reflected and influenced the world." -Chicago Tribune Literary Award citation

"Rushdie's lavish prose has the power to mesmerize and enthrall." -TIME

"Salman Rushdie plunges us into a world of marvels." -The New York Times

"As with Joyce or Borges or other great writers, Rushdie's linguistic virtuosity incarnates the metamorphic possibilities of language." -Toronto Star "[Rushdie] wreathes every book with layers of myth, legend and literary allusion." -Maclean's

"Swift in Gulliver's Travels, Voltaire in Candide, Sterne in Tristram Shandy. . . . Salman Rushdie, it seems to me is very much a latter-day member of their company." -The New York Times Book Review

"Rushdie illuminates without sentimentality or political preaching." -Philadelphia Inquirer

"Rushdie's Shame changed everything. It was the book that changed my narrow perception of how to write a novel. It exploded what I considered to be the rules of writing fiction. . . . Reading Salman liberated my voice as a writer in the same way as Kafka and Marquez liberated Salman's rise." -Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

"Rushdie has emerged as arguably the most significant writer of the global novel." -Asian American Writers' Workshop

Sir SALMAN RUSHDIE is the multi-award winning author of twelve previous novels--Luka and the Fire of Life, Grimus, Midnight's Children (which won the Booker Prize, 1981, and the Best of the Booker Prize, 2008), Shame,The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown and The Enchantress of Florence--and one collection of short stories, East, West. He has also published three works of non-fiction: The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 and Step Across This Line, and co-edited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. His memoir, Joseph Anton, published in 2012, became an internationally acclaimed bestseller. It was praised as "the finest memoir...in many a year" (The Washington Post). His books have been translated into over forty languages. He is a former president of PEN America. The author lives in New York and London.